The subject matter of the present specification generally relates to the art of data security. Exemplary embodiments disclosed herein find particular application in conjunction with the secure processing of commercial and/or other like transactions over an open or public telecommunications network, e.g., such as the Internet and/or other like packet and/or data networks, and they will be described herein with particular reference thereto. However, it is to be appreciated that various exemplary embodiments such as those disclosed herein are also amenable to other like applications.
In the field of data security, tokenization generally refers to a process whereby a real data element is replaced with a surrogate or substitute that is commonly referred to as a token. Generally, it is desirable to keep the value of the real data element secret or otherwise provide only limited access thereto to particular selected entities. Conventionally, the value of the token by itself may have no specific or readily discernable meaning. Rather, the token is merely a reference or identifier that correlates, via a tokenization system, to the real data. Conventionally, one cannot readily determine or otherwise obtain the value of the real data element from the token absent access to the tokenization system.
Disclosed herein are a new and/or improved system and/or method for tokenization.